EEKK! Spiders!

Spiders, spiders, and more spiders! While I love teaching about spiders, I am burnout on them this year.  One week of plans turned into two weeks since my kids were loving learning all about spiders!

We started out with a reading of The Spider and The Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi. My kids always love this book. We created a story map together. 

Then I led into informational text about spiders. We began with our wonderings. Each student was sent off to record 2 things they wondered about spiders. We charted our wonderings.

At the end of the two weeks, the students wrote what they learned. We added this to our anchor chart.

This was our first attempt at wondering and learning. It really gave me a glimpse of where my students' thinking was and where we need some guiding. 

We read a bunch of books on spiders and viewed some videos. They just could not get enough! 

I had to bring the spiders into math. Since we had been working on part-part-whole (and I failed to find enough plastic spiders to use as manipulatives), I had the students cut and color this cute little spider to use. The first two days, the students used them with mats.

On the third day, they had to create their own addition sentences using dice and the spiders. 

I also introduced graphing with the spider theme.

We compared narrative text and informational text. I was really surprised at the comparisons my students were able to make, all on their own!

As always, we had to complete a Can-Have-Are organizer. 

 I love that while the students were able to use the group chart for information, several kids wrote about things they learned that really stuck with them. Of course, I don't have a picture of those ones! 

The students took all of their learning and compiled it into a written piece. 

It has definitely been a webbed out theme on spiders! You can grab some freebies I created last year here. Or you can check out the revised unit here. 

Now we are Going Batty!

Calendar Math Madness

   Well, hello there friends! I don't know about you...but it's been a hectic end of the year for me! Between ending the year and packing up, it has been nonstop.  The classroom is packed and the kids are off for summer break. I think I have finally found a moment to breathe!

    Onto some exciting news, well, for me at least! I have finally finished my Math Madness, a Common Core calendar companion unit. I have had many questions over the years as to how I do calendar math. So now I am FINALLY read to share! 

     I used to do the typical program. I quickly realized, this just wasn't enough. While calendar math has some great components, there was just not enough spiraling in it or in the many math programs I have used. End of the year testing comes, and the students no longer remember how to do many skills. 

     I have gradually added skills to the morning math routine. (I used to just quickly draw or type out the new skill. Not cute at all! I would love to show you pictures of what it used to look like, but I have none, and besides it would now be embarrassing!)

 Over the course of this year, I have cute-sified my Math Madness and aligned it to Common Core for first and second grade. (I teach a split class.)

When I began this year, I would introduce and teach the skill, after a few modelings, I would have a student come up and complete each skill every morning.

  But...I believed it could be even better for the students. There was still a component missing. Then one day earlier this year, it hit me. They were not recording or mentally participating in the actions of mathematical thinking. They were just responding to a series of questions and patterns. The entire structure of calendar math was based on patterns. 

 I took it a step further and had the students record with me, and eventually independently. So Math Madness was born and quickly grew. I have seen phenomenal gains in math, and my students are working independently and loving Math Madness. Both my first and second graders showed proficiency in most, if not all the skills.

          Here is my plan for next year, based on how I implemented it this year.

Beginning the first day of school, we begin with calendar math time. On day one, I will model the date, days in school with place value, money, and a pattern on the calendar. After I will model, the students record on their response sheets. By the second week, students usually have a pretty good idea of how this goes, and they begin to work independently on the Math Madness. As they complete it, I then have students present their thinking and answers to the class.

  The third or fourth week, I add a new skill. This can be either a review from the previous grade OR a mini-lesson on a skill coming up.  As a mini-lesson, it gives me a good picture of who already has some foundation for the new skill. It also gives me good insight as to who needs remediation in certain skills.

   In the beginning, the numbers will tie into the days we have been in school. This won’t last more than a few weeks, as the kids begin to figure that out, and then they just go on automatic with the patterns. NOT what I want happening. =) Then I will just start changing up the numbers I use. I try to tie it into what ever math skill I really want to hit that day or week.  For example, when I  taught even/odd; besides just that skill card- I would do a day where ALL the numbers were even on the Math Madness cards.  The next day, I would make all the numbers odd.

  Once I have established a routine the first few weeks of school, I can start adding skills. As the year progresses, I will move from 4 skills to 6 skills and finally 8 skills. By February this year, both my first and second graders were completing the Math Madness as they arrived. I would check their work, and send them back to make corrections. **Corrections are huge for me during Math Madness.  It really gets them to think about and rework the math.** After most are done, we go about the normal calendar math routine and include the Math Madness skills.

I have to say this is by far one of my students favorite times of the day. Please check out my sample and let me know what you think. I love feedback! 

You can find a sample of Math Madness in the preview file at TPT.

Penguins

Hi all! I have been stuck in the house all day because the tree cutters are here. I had no idea it was an all day project! I had much to be doing other than sitting at home.

So in order to cure my boredom, I got busy with some math stations (among many other things). I am working on a theme unit of penguins for our return in January. My kiddos have been working on comparing numbers, greater/less than, rounding to the nearest ten, and skip counting. So I made these guys with some cute penguins!
Check it out and leave me some comment love...

I am working on penguin poems, can/have/are charts, and a reading response to Tacky...BUT I need some ideas for literacy stations. I am STUCK on word work...I will be implementing the Daily 5 when we return, and I am trying to come up with some word work stations that can be the same each week with just the word or phonics skill changing...but I am at a loss as where to start! So help a fellow teacher out and tell me what you do for word work. (Note-these kids are VERY visual...so the normal dry erase boards and magnetic letters will not keep them working!) =)

Gingerbread Love...

Update: Gingerbread Literacy Activities & Gingerbread Numbers have been posted to TPT and TN. =) Check below for a rounding freebie!

It's the afternoon and I am still in my pj's! =) I *wish* I could say I just rolled out of bed, but that is not the case...I have been busy working on some gingerbead-ish things for my class this week. After blog hopping, well, stalking, I found lots of great stuff (which I will be using!).

Here comes the but...But I really needed something more for my second graders. I needed fun incorporated with skill review because we have a big *theme* test this week in reading!
So I have been busy at work with this...

which led to this...
and three hours later...this...

As if that wasn't enough...I started thinking about math...
and more math
which then became this...

Here's a freebie for you!Click on the picture to grab it.
I think I may have lost my mind. What should have taken me no time to write lesson plans for this week...has now not even been started! =) I have my math stations and my literacy focus...now to spread them across the week!!!
And just to be clear, these are geared toward my second graders...(I know the blog still says first...I have both now! =))

If you have read this far...you are in luck! I think I need someone, well probably more than one someone, to proof these and give me some feedback! So I will give both units AWAY to the first three people willing to proof and provide feedback. =) Just leave your name and email in the comments. I will email them to you! =)